Monday, 3 December 2012

Bad news: alternative last.fm apps CoboltFM and KLastFM are dead

Update 1: CoboltFM and KLastFM are really dead now. Last.fm changed things for the worse and pulled the plug on free streaming for almost everyone. Believe it or not, most of the planet can't stream anymore even if they pay. Last.fm refugees can still stream custom radio stations from Grooveshark with Dood's Music Streamer.

There's a problem with last.fm. Not with last.fm itself, but with the music industry that imposes stupid rules as if the days of sheet music and 78 RPM never ended. Last.fm is supposed to be a global music community, but if you want to listen to last.fm radio stations on your phone or tablet you'll find that last.fm is not so global anymore. Not because last.fm wants it, but because "recording industry" is an alien word that means greed in english.

A song that plays in Elzas (Germany) won't play 5 miles down the road in Alsace (France). What plays in Seattle doesn't play in Vancouver. It works in San Diego but not in Tijuana.

If you're in Germany, the UK, or the USA, last.fm plays on your mobile device. But if last.fm detects that your IP address is from one of the other 200 countries on the planet it only plays the sound of silence (and I don't mean that old song that your grandma listened to in Central Park). It won't even play if you have a paid last.fm subscription. For most of the planet, listening to last.fm on any mobile device is verboten.

The www is meant to be world wide. That's why there are Android apps out there that repair last.fm so you can listen on your mobile phone or tablet, no matter where in the world you are.

But then I received this email from last.fm:

Changes to Last.fm Radio

Hello, android underground.

We're writing you to let you know that there will soon be a change to Last.fm radio that may affect you. Our stats show that you've listened to radio through an application that uses our old streaming protocol. On 1 December we will deprecate this old protocol, so in some applications radio will no longer work.

If you would like to continue enjoying Last.fm Radio, consider upgrading to a new application or using http://www.last.fm/listen

Thanks,
The Last.fm Team

Would CoboltFM and KLastFM stop working?

It's the third of December now for half of the planet. In Asia, Australia, Africa, and most of Europe it's already the fourth. Both apps still play last.fm radio as if nothing happened. Maybe the old streaming protocol still works, maybe CoboltFM and KLastFM use the new protocol, maybe there's another reason why last.fm keeps singing on my Android phone.

Stay tuned.

Update 1: CoboltFM and KLastFM are really dead now. Last.fm changed things for the worse and pulled the plug on free streaming for almost everyone. Believe it or not, most of the planet can't stream anymore even if they pay. Last.fm refugees can still stream custom radio stations from Grooveshark with Dood's Music Streamer.